how did you get started with snakes?

[alan]

I got "started" by my wife. She found a listing on Craig's for the supplies to keep a snake and confessed to me her lifelong desire to "own" a snake. I think I said something like, "Uh, okay", so she went to pick them up. She came back with a nice aquarium with a locking screen top, 2 hides, a climbing stick, a zoo-med stick-on UTH, a water bowl , a piece of astro-turf, and a 4.5' long cornsnake.
I have always liked snakes. As a teen I spent a lot of time in the woods and came across quite a few. At work I have always been the one to call to remove the mouse hunters that get caught inside when people are there (partly because they know I'm fearless, mostly because I went off on them one day for killing a nice 5.5' black). Liking snakes does not prepare one for keeping one alive and well so that day, faced with caring for a creature I knew little about, I Googled.
Well, that was a stroke of snakey luck for Cheerio. I found this site and all (really ALL) of my questions were answered, and I learned more than I knew I needed to know. Now she lives in a 75 gallon vivarium/cabinet thing that was originally made for saltwater fish. It takes up a lot of room, I think the bottom cabinets can be converted into more vivs, but I don't know why I think that.

 

[Hunter2011]

I got started with snakes when one day I was at the pet store and decided I wanted to hold one, someone else was holding the ball python, so I asked to just hold a baby corn snake, and I loved it!!! So after begging for a week or so, my Mom finaly gave in, and then next week I was on my way to Fed Ex to pick up my precious baby normal corn snake from Kathy Love!!! And I love her so much!!!! YEAH!! lol

 

[DaGiant]

I was afraid of "Reptiles" period! until in Jul 05 a friend of mine
gave my Son 2 of his baby Bearded Dragons. My friend had
Corn Snakes too, but I wouldn't get within 6ft of them.
In Mar 06 we were in the local Reptile Shop to get crickets
for the "Dragons", I was browsing around asked to see an 8mo
old Corn. The guy took him out and just handed him to me!
I was in shock for a couple of minutes... then actually enjoyed
handling it. My wife and son saw me and we decided to buy it
since he was "on-Sale". I started reading up on them and found
them more fascinating. I went to a Reptile Show in 10/06 and
WON a "Baby Corn Snake" as a door prize. I was told about this
site at that time, and have had all questions answered since.
I now have 23 snakes and am getting things together to start
breeding in '09. The insane addiction of the snakes is my calming
sanity in life!!!
So in a 2yr period from "Deathly Afraid" to future breeder!

 

[kimmerh]

I've always kinda liked snakes but never thought about owning one. But somewhere around July of last year, my hubby calls me outside to see the snake in the yard!! It looked pretty harmless, so I grabbed it up and brought it in for a better look. Turns out to be a Cali king, about 3ish feet long! Me & the kids all took turns holding and ooohing & ahhing for a while before we put it back where we found it. And then the little bugger showed up in almost the same spot in the yard the very next day!!

So anyways, that definitely got the wheels turning....

 

[draco_0420]

Well, I've always been facinated with snakes for as long as I can remember. Heck, I was 5 years old when I caught my first garter snake. There was a pet store in the area that sold snakes ( and this store really knew how to take care of them too. They were all healthy. ) and I asked my mom and dad if I could get one. Of course they said NO because they believe that " the only good snake is a dead snake ".

I moved out when I was 18, but was struggling to stay on my feet, so buying one was out of the picture. But when I could finally afford one ( which was last October ) I jumped at the chance. Now my little amel corn Draco is doing great and growing like a weed. I simply love him to death and am looking forward to getting a femaleBlizzard or Miami to breed with him.

 

[v_various]

Went to a BBQ party, and the host brought out her bull snake. He was amazing, I fell in love with them! What's better than a quite pet who needs minimal attention? I asked her what a good beginner snake was...she said corn snakes.

In the course of signing up on snake boards, and visiting my local herp club at one of their events, I got an offer for a free corn! Woo!

 

[Phantom Pain]

When I was really little I would play in the stream by my house and I would always find small garder snakes and spiders and other bugs so I fell in love with those kind of things. Eventually when I got older I bought some tarantulas and scorpions my mother allowing these because of her fear of snakes. Eventually my curiosity with snakes sparked and I allowing all I could about corn snakes and managed to convince my mom to let me get one because I want to work with animals when I'm older and to my surprise she agreed. So since everything is going well with my first corn (Orochimaru) I'm sure there will be many more in the future.

 

[pdpo222]

I have always liked snakes. It isn't til Christmas that I finally got one. When I took him to the nursing home one of the nurses said, what does a 60 year old woman want with a snake. I just laughed. I am not interested in breeding, I breed tropical fish. Just like my guy a lot. Residents love him too.

 

[JaimeP]

I didn't think about snakes much as a kid... I spent a lot more time catching frogs and tadpoles. WI isn't premium territory for snakes, although we do have some Pines and Fox Snakes and other fun stuff. I lived in a city, though, so there wasn't much chance for me to find anything in the wild. In high school I met a girl that had a Ball Python. The BP's name was Precious and she spent HOURS hanging out with the two of us. I remember the first time I got to feed her and watch her go for a swim.
Of course I reported these fun times to my parents, and they were mortified. In fact, I think they considered not letting me go over to her house any more, for fear that this 2.5ft ball python would mortally wound me. I was 14 at the time.
By the age of 19 I was out of the house and out of the dorms, and I had some extra cash in my pockets from working my butt off at my summer job. I had been living without my dog for two years and was practically dying from not having a pet. I knew I wouldn't be able to give a dog the type of attention that it would need, and I remembered Precious and how much I had loved her. Of course, a Ball Python was the choice for me! I went to the local pet store quite often because they had puppies I could play with, and I usually wandered over towards the reptile section. They had a pretty good selection... Cal Kings, Hognose, Kenyan Sand Boas, Common Boas, Corns... but NO Ball Pythons! I was crushed. I thought, "if not a ball python, then nothing!" Eventually I started to think about kings (because they're mean and nasty, I thought it would be cool). Then I talked to one of the reptile specialists, trying to figure out what I wanted. He told me about his friend that had three corn snakes (at the time I thought, "who in the world needs more than one snake?!?!"), and walked around with all three of them around his neck. I told him I didn't want one of those "wimpy" snakes, and that I wanted something wildly impressive... you know, like a ball python. He explained that corn snakes could grow to lengths of 6 ft, etc, etc. and then just decided to take one out for me to hold. He put this little orange thing in my hand, we looked into each other's eyes, and I was pretty much sold. I went home, did what felt like thousands of hours of research to make sure that I could take care of it properly, and found a used set-up on craigslist. I went back almost a week later, holding my breath that the little orange worm I had fallen in love with would still be there. She was still there, alone in her cage. The guy told me that she had been at the pet store for a long time, because everyone passed her up in favor of the more brightly colored corns. She was a late '06, and they still had her eating pinkies (smaller, cuter snakes are what sells at pet stores). They put her in a bag, I bought a couple pinkies, and the rest is pretty much history.
7 corns, 4 ball pythons, 2 bearded dragons, 2 crested geckos, 2 texas rat snakes, and a lot of frozen mice later, I'm as happy as a clam. Little Prince, my first corn, is now over 150 grams, a mouse dumpster, and the sweetest snake in my collection. Overpriced, maybe. Over-loved, most definitely.

 

[nlt71]

I think my story is a lot like many others. I have always had pets--mostly mammals. About 8 years ago, my neighbor gave me her giant beardie--Rankor. She was the sweetest thing. I got a couple more beardies, but then went to a WCCB expo in Henderson, NV about 3 years ago and fell in love with the colors of the cornsnakes--not to mention the general ease of care compared to beardies. My friend and I each got one for our middle school classrooms. Of course, one turned into two and then into about 40! They now have their own insulated outbuilding.

Hello, my name is Nancy, and I am an addict. I'm not sure that we have a local SA group, but I think I need one.

 

[jiva]

well I have always loved all animals and wanted to work at a zoo when I got older. I had always caught frogs and and tadpoles and snakes and whatever else I could catch when I would play outside. My parents are not really pet people so I spent many hours of my life trying to convince them to let me have pets. I had a rabbit and fish when I was younger but was always begging for a dog.
At age 12 I finally convinced them to let me have a dog. One day we went to petco and I was just looking around at the reptiles like I always did and I decided that I really wanted a snake and I told my mother. I had wanted a snake everytime I saw them there but never said anything because I thought there was no way she would ever let me get one and I was too buisy convincing her to let me have a dog to work on the snake yet. Now that I had succeded with the dog I figured it was time to try for the snake.
It was not a cornsnake that I had originaly pointed out to my mother but she semed to be okay with the snake idea so we asked someone there about the snakes that we were looking at and he suggested that maybe we think about a cornsnake because they were calmer and easier to handle.
So we read some infromation and talked with the people there and went home to talk about it. We decided that we would get one and went back to petco.
There was a normal and an amel there at that petco and we wanted the normal but by the time we got back there the normal was sold. well me and my brother did not want the amel. so we went to another petco but there was only an amel there as well. we went home dissapointed. that night we went to my grandparents house and told them about everything and my Grandpap said he would take us to a petco that was further away, so we went but there were none there so we had them call other stores in the area to see if there was one anywhere. There was one that was kinda far away but my grandpap drove us there to get it.
well we brought him home and it was a disater. he wouldnt eat or drink and got obviously sick. there was nothing we could do and he died about 3 months later.
I wanted to get another one but it just never happened until a few months ago I started seriously looking at snakes again. I talked to my roomate about it and we agreed that it was a good decision (turns out she and I will not be roomates anymore which turned into a huge disaster but thats a different story) I looked around and found what I wanted and about a month ago bought 2 cornsnakes.
These 2 seem to be doing very well and are good eaters. I am pretty insanely addicted to snakes now. I wish I could have more but I cant really afford nor do I have room for any more right now.

 

[MegF.]

I always liked snakes and didn't have any as a kid. As an adult my husband and I were very involved in Snake Avoidance training for dogs. We trained dogs to stay away from rattlesnakes and the guy that provided the rattlesnakes stayed with us. We got a lot of time around the rattlesnakes and liked them a lot. Then we saw an ad about the reptile show in Pamona and bought our first cornsnake there. It went downhill after that! Added a few more corns, then a few more...bred some, bought a green tree python (I swear honey...I just want one cuz they look so neat) that led to two and then 6 and now more...then just one amazon...then 4....it's horrible! I'll be getting a rainbow boa one of these days....then who knows what!

 

[Nozomi]

Mine's simple, I guess. When I was thirteen, I asked for a snake. Mother said no and despite my begging and pleading, I didn't get one. Seven years later, I wrote out a big whole thing and gave it to her - it included all the infrmation I had learned from this site and books - and she finally gave in. The condition was that I care for him, didn't make her hold him and was moved out of the house before he was grown up. I took it. I've had Shred-meister for six months now so I have 2.5 years before I have to get out. Aaarg. Tryyying!